What Distracts You?

Eons ago … January 19th, to be exact, I began a sharing the ten controlling principles of simplicity as outlined in Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. We should have completed that study a month ago … but sometimes living gets in the way of blogging and that has definitely been the case the past several weeks.

Today, we’ll finally wrap up those principles.

Shun anything that distracts you from seeking first the kingdom of God. (95)

I think a quick word study might be appropriate. Let’s look at some definitions {all from dictionary.com}:

shun: to keep away from (a place, person, object, etc.), from motives of dislike, caution, etc.; take pains to avoid.
anything: a thing of any kind.
distracts: to draw away or divert, as the mind or attention.

So, that leaves us with this guidance:

Simplicity is marked by taking pains to avoid a thing of any kind that draws away or diverts our minds or attention from the kingdom of God.

What distracts me? What diverts my attention from God and the things of God?

Foster continues his thoughts on this idea by saying this:

It is so easy to lose focus in the pursuit of legitimate, even good things. Job, position, status, family, friends, security – these and many more can all to quickly become the center of attention. (95)

This boils down to one thing: Focus.

Learning to train our minds to be focused on the things of God in the midst of daily life, in the midst of the mundane. Basically, allowing the sacred and the secular to collide in our lives. I think for most of us, me included, we *want* to do that … we intend and purpose to do that … but we are not always sure how.

Tomorrow I’ll be doing a review of one tool I’ve found lately that is a great resource for learning to see how even the most mundane tasks are sacred when we learn to do all thing for His glory.

What distracts you?